Daikin Industries, a small presence in the U.S. air-conditioning market, has purchased Goodman Global for $3.7 billion, putting the Japanese firm just ahead of Carrier in the global HVAC business, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Daikin is buying Goodman from a private equity firm named Hellman & Friedman, which paid $2.7 billion, plus the assumption of debt, to take the company private in 2007, the newspaper reported.